Ui'iinr uf 7^•^ /'■'/•.-•, I /It/ 1.'!. 



ti'5 



NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE MONTH. 



THE MYTHS OF MEXICO AND PERU. 



The Myths nf Mrxin, ami I'nii. JJv 

 I^MVis Sponc<". Ilhistiat<>cl. (Hairap, 7.s (id' 

 not.) 



It is probable that we read less about 

 Mexico and Peru nowadays than our 

 fathers did. Students of art and civiH- 

 sation, perhaps, read more, but the aver- 

 age seeker after entertainment in books 

 reads less. Prescott is no longer bril- 

 liant with novelty, and it is only the most 

 brilliant novelty that can startle us out 

 of our settled ignorance in matters of 

 history. Especially difficult is it for the 

 ])lain reader to bring himself to be in- 

 terested in the ways of peoples among 

 whom names like Chalchihuitlicue, 

 Ixtlilxochitl, Xquiq, and Vupanqui Pac- 

 hacutic are popular. 



Still, even for the ordinary reader, it is 

 well worth ;i little trouble to study the 

 mysteries of those fascinating civilisa- 

 tions which arose untouched by foreign 

 influences in North, Central and South 

 America. On the question of the origin 

 of the earlv American races, of course, 

 there is infinite dispute. Mr. Lewis 

 Spence, in the j^resent interesting volume, 

 lells us that 



ail Asiatic o-i^in is, oi coui-se, aclniitt('<l 

 tor the altofisz; iu\s of Ariu'rica, hut it is iin- 

 (hnihtedly streichod hack into that dim Ter- 

 tiary Era \vh<'n man was little more than 

 heast, and language as yet was not. or at 

 the best was only half formed. 



That man came to America from Asia 

 does not then necessarily mean that civi- 

 lisation also came to America from Asia. 

 This, Mr. Spence insists, is of " purely 

 native origin." Not only is there the 

 imique character of American art as evi- 

 dence of this, but — • 



American language, arithmetic, and 

 methods of time-reckoning, too, hear no re- 

 semblance to other systems, European or 

 Asiatic. 



Besides this, there are various other facts 

 which go to show that the Americ.ms 

 who built up the Mexican, Mayan, and 

 Peruvian civilisations lived in complete 

 isolation from other advanced peoples. 

 Their cultivated plants -maize, cocoa, 

 tobacco, and the [potato -were unknown 



in the Old World, and, still more re- 

 markable, they seem to have known no- 

 thing of many of the chief domesticated 

 animals of the Old World, such as the 

 horse, the cow, and the sheep. 



DYING GODS. 



Mr. .Spence, in the i)resent book, has 

 devoted himself much more to the civili- 

 sations than to the myths of America. 

 His book IS badly named. But this — 

 apart from the fact that it is rather in- 

 appropriately illustrated — is the only 

 fault we are inclined to find with it. It 

 contains, among other things, a most 

 interesting summary of the religious 

 beliefs and practices of the various 

 peoples. We are told, for instance, how 

 the Nahua believed that " the constant 

 production of food and rain induced a 

 condition of senility in those deities 

 whose duty it was to provide them," and 

 how the)- tried to arrest this divine senile 

 decay. 



This they attempted to stave off, fearing 

 that if they faik^d in so doing the gods 

 would perish. They afforded them. accor<i- 

 ingly, a period of rest and recu])eration. and 

 once in eight years a festival caHed the 

 Atamalqualiztli (Fast of Porridge-balls and 

 Water) was held, during which every one of 

 the Nahua community returned for the 

 time being to the conditions of savage life. 

 T)ress<"d in costumes representing all forms 

 of animal and })ird life, and mimicking the 

 sounds made by tlie various creatures they 

 typifii'd, th(^ jx-opie danced round the teii- 

 calli of Tlaloc for tlie purjiose of diverting 

 and ent<'i-taitiing liim aft<'r iii.s labours in pi-o- 

 ducing the fertilising rains of the past ei,ght 

 veais. A lake was filh'd with wat-er-snakes and 

 frogs, and into this the people plunged, catcji. 

 ing tli<> reptiles in their mouths and devour- 

 ing them alive. The only graiii f<K)d whii'b 

 might l)e j)artakeii . , . wa.s thin wat<'i- 

 poriidge of maiz(\ 



The sun, of course, was the chief deit\- 

 of all, and he, too, had to be preserved 

 from senility : 



The Mexicans . . . believed that the 

 luminary they knew liad h(-en pre<'ed<'d by 

 otluMS, each of wliich had been quencheii 

 by some awful cataclysm of nature. Eter- 

 nity had, in fact, be<Mi l)roken up into 

 epocle<, marked by thi> destruction of suc- 

 cossiv(> suns. in tlu- jieriod preceding that 

 in which the.y ]iv<'d, a mighty dehige had 



